Sunday 6 September 2015 18:12, UK
Warren Gatland accepts that he could be without Leigh Halfpenny and Rhys Webb for the forthcoming World Cup after both players were injured during Wales' final tournament warm-up game against Italy on Saturday.
The pair were carried off during the friendly against Italy at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with full-back Halfpenny suffering a knee injury while scrum-half Webb sustained suspected ankle ligament damage.
Although yet to receive confirmation that the pair have been ruled out of the World Cup, which begins later this month, Gatland knows he may have to call up replacements next week.
James Hook, Mike Phillips and Gareth Anscombe are three players hoping for a telephone call from the Wales coach who is awaiting updated medical bulletins following scans on the injured duo but it does not look good for either player.
Halfpenny's goal-kicking prowess was underlined by him passing 500 points for Wales during the Italy fixture, while Webb has established himself as clear first-choice number nine during the past 12 months.
Hook and Phillips were both cut from Gatland's training squad last month but combined have more than 170 Wales caps between them.
Wales open their World Cup campaign against Uruguay on September 20 and Gatland admits: "It's not great, is it?
"You have got to feel for them if they are ruled out. It would be a massive blow for them and disappointing for us.
"But you've got to put that behind you and work with the players you've got and build them and have the confidence going into the next game.
"It's one of those things. Players want to play, and unfortunately sometimes they pick up injuries.
"Potentially in the next 24-48 hours, when we get the (scan) results back, we may have to sit down and start thinking about replacements but there's nothing concrete in our heads.
"We will see what the results are, and talk about that as coaches and sit down with the medics and talk about the whole squad and potentially what our options are."
As for the narrow 23-19 win over Italy, Gatland added: "We made a lot of mistakes. It was a frustrating game.
"We went on with the intention of wanting to play rugby but it was just so stop-start the whole game.
"We went from 43 minutes of ball-in-play last week against Ireland to 26 minutes this week. We had the same sort of game against them (Italy) in the 2014 Six Nations.
"We are very analytical of ourselves and very critical of our own performances, and the players are as well.
"The injuries are disappointing, obviously, and the performance as well. But you take that in sport and you move on pretty quickly."
